Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum, 95 theses (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is in reply to this statement found on another web site I follow: http://jamesjpn.net/
Luther, Calvin et al the supposed stalwarts of Protestant Christianity, are wolves in my opinion and the complete opposite of the apostle Paul. They were responsible for killing people AFTER their supposed conversion and break from Catholicism. They may not be Jesuit agents but they have walked right into the Devil’s schemes.
Calvin is known to have given his enthusiastic support for an execution for heresy in Geneva, in one case I know of. That’s just one. Calvinists are very adept at defending him and I won’t address that right now. The case of Martin Luther is not so simple.
If he supported the brutal suppression as reported, this would be another flaw. Some of the peasant actions were those of going into the churches that were built with their own contributions, in the clerical “theft by fraud” scheme of the penitence payments. They began destroying those evil idols that filled those buildings.
In my opinion, Martin Luther is partially or completely exonerated by Matthew 7:20, By their fruits ye shall know them. His was the pivotal moment, at great risk to himself, to expose the clerical autocracy. His opposition to the peasants uprising, by the way, was based on a strange and unworkable hybrid of libertarianism and authoritarianism.
Libertarianism because he opposed the stealing and looting that the peasants were apparently saying was their right, and that only voluntary sharing of goods as in Acts 2 and Acts 4 was encouraged. Share your own voluntarily, but not someone else’s by force.
Authoritarianism because he invoked a misinterpretation of Romans 13 that is common to many. People forget to consider, even Martin Luther, that not all governments are “of God“, and not all government agents are “ministers of God”. If they are not “God’s ministers” (Rom 13:6), or “ministers of good”, they don’t qualify.
Also, the takeaway from Matthew 17 is that Jesus did not have much regard for any government taxation scheme. The children of tax collectors (the ones who tell you how much you have to pay in “tribute”) “are free”, he said, meaning that taxation is a form of “not free”, or “involuntary servitude”. Because the taxation deciders make sure of their own advantage in these schemes.
It usually holds though; David referred to “the wicked” as God’s sword, meaning God uses them to implement his judgements upon the people that are known by his name.
Related articles
- Martin Luther’s definition of Faith (twclark66.wordpress.com)
- Luther -The World As The Kingdom of The Devil (iamnotafraidblog.com)
- Martin Luther and the Meaning of Reason (calvinistinternational.com)
- John Calvin vs The World: The Man Part 3 (willeng2surv.wordpress.com)
- Bonhoeffer and the Two Kingdoms (calvinistinternational.com)
- Luther -Doctrines of Demons (iamnotafraidblog.com)
- Wittenberg and more (fbcsmith.wordpress.com)
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